


counterbalance

by renecdote



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: 10.22: Aloha, Because what I need more of is these guys in particular talking about feelings, Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Guys talking about feelings, episode coda, friends don't let other friends run off alone when they're having a crisis of self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23494153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renecdote/pseuds/renecdote
Summary: “You’re here to tell me why I should stay?” Steve guesses.Junior smiles, an upwards tic of his lips that is almost a smirk. “I know better than to wage a losing battle, sir.“ He shakes his head. “No, I’m here to watch your six.”Aka the one where the author looked at the line “This seat taken?” and thought 'huh. what can I do with that?'
Relationships: Steve McGarrett & Junior Reigns
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	counterbalance

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched episode 21 and the finale back to back, had a lot of feelings and immediately starting writing a fix-it fic. This is not that fic. This is an entirely different, much shorter fix-it fic because halfway through writing the other one I had unexpected Steve and Junior feelings. Also I couldn't stop thinking about that conversation between Tani and Junior in episode 21. So ta da, this happened.
> 
> If there are any mistakes I sincerely apologise, I wrote this in a rush when I was supposed to be doing an assignment instead whoops.

“This seat taken?”

Steve looks up in surprise. Of all the voices that might have tried to stop him from leaving, he’s not sure he expected this one. It takes a moment for his mouth to catch up to his brain, but it doesn’t matter, Junior is already sitting down beside him, not waiting for an answer.

“Danny sent you?” Steve asks. It seems like the logical conclusion. If Danny wasn’t injured, he’d probably be here himself, beating Steve over the head with an in-flight magazine and a verbose list of all the reasons he is being an idiot. 

Junior shakes his head. “Something Tani said has been bothering me. She thought I was letting you off easy, ignoring how much you’ve been hurting, letting my admiration for you cloud my judgement about how you’re handling it.”

Steve taps the boarding pass in his hand against his knee. It’s not what he was expecting and he’s not quite sure what to do with it. “Was she right?” he asks.

“I didn’t think so at the time,” Junior says, stretching out his legs in the cramped space between seats. “But then I realised something.” He face is serious when he looks at Steve. “You weren’t going to say goodbye.”

It doesn’t feel as much like an accusation as it might have coming from anyone else. Junior is a soldier too. He knows how hard goodbyes are. He also knows how important they are when you never know if you’re going to get the chance to say it later.

“In my experience, people who take off without saying goodbye are usually running away from their problems, not dealing with them well.”   
  
It is a good, and frustratingly astute, point. Steve had been telling himself he was just a coward, not wanting to face his team, his ohana, because he didn’t know how to say goodbye to them. Maybe he even thought that he didn’t need to, if he was planning to come back. But Junior is right. If years of police work have taught Steve anything, it’s that people don’t run when everything is fine. He has every reason to stay and yet here he is on an airplane, leaving behind the only place that has ever really felt like home. 

He couldn’t even do it without looking back. Not certain, even now, that it’s the right thing to do.

“You’re here to tell me why I should stay?” Steve guesses.

Junior smiles, an upwards tic of his lips that is almost a smirk. “I know better than to wage a losing battle, sir.“ He shakes his head. “No, I’m here to watch your six.”

Steve almost smiles himself. Danny has been telling him for ten years now to stop running off without waiting for backup. Five-0’s newer recruits have been treated to the same lecture more than once. Steve doesn’t think he’s going to be able to argue his way out of this one. 

“What about Five-0?” 

_What about Danny?_ he almost asks.

“I think they can manage without me for a while.” 

“And Tani?”

“She insisted on dropping me off at the airport,” Junior says. “I think you underestimate just how worried about you she’s been the last few weeks.”

Steve thinks back to all the concerned looks he’d catch when they thought he wasn’t looking. All the quiet conversations as soon as he left a room. He knows they’ve been worried. Hell, he’s been worried. It’s unsettling, feeling wrong without knowing why. Feeling like no matter how hard he tries he can’t keep up with all the curveballs life keeps throwing at him. It’s exhausting.

Maybe running isn’t the best solution when he feels like all he’s been doing for the last ten years is running; no real goal, no idea if he was even going forward half the time. But Steve doesn’t know what else to do. At least this time he’s setting his own goal, picking his own direction. He only has to run far enough to get a bit of perspective and then…

And then.

“You don’t have to be okay, Steve,” Junior says quietly, and it’s the use of his name more than the words themselves which jolt Steve out of his own head. “But you also don’t have to be not okay by yourself.”

“I know,” Steve replies, a little hoarse. And he does. Danny, Lou, the whole lot of them—they’ve always made that clear. 

The stewardess is moving down the aisle, doing a final check that everyone has belts on and bags stowed for take off. Steve still has a few seconds, maybe even a whole minute; he could tell Junior to leave now and he would still be able to get off the plane before they pull away from the gate. 

But he’s pretty sure Junior wouldn’t listen. Not even if it was an order.

“Sir?” The stewardess is smiling at him now. “Please fasten your seatbelt.”

Steve glances over and finds that Junior has already buckled his. He’s not going anywhere. 

“I could probably still call Lou and have him ground the plane,” Junior suggests, but it’s half-hearted, more joke than real suggestion.

Steve shakes his head. Smiles. He fastens his belt with a click. 

“Plenty of time for turning back later,” he says. 

And he will. Turn back. He’s sure of that. He just has to figure out how to do it because he wants to and not because he feels like he needs to. 

“Well until then, you get to put up with me,” Junior says, nudging Steve’s shoulder. “And probably Tani. She’s going to call all the time, you know that right?”

It makes Steve laugh a little. He thinks of the text still waiting on the lock screen of his phone. “She can’t be worse than Danny,” he replies. “I haven’t even left Hawaii yet and I already have messages from him.”

Junior shakes his head, grinning. He looks at ease, loose-limbed in the seat as the plane turns away from the gate and out toward the runway. Relaxed the way he hadn’t been when they said their goodbyes at the house. Steve wonders if Junior knew then that he was going to get on the plane as well, or if that had been a frantic plan concocted and put into action in the minutes right after he left. He decides it doesn’t really matter. He looks at Junior in the seat beside him and can see any one of the rest of the team in his place. They probably all would have come if they could. If they thought Steve would let them.

“Hey,” he says suddenly, as the cabin lights dim and the plane picks up speed. Junior looks over at him. “Thanks. For watching my six.”

Junior nods. “Of course, sir.” A beat, and then he adds, “That’s what family is for.”

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I don't even know I just had problems with everyone being okay with Steve just going off on his own. (I know he technically didn't but they didn't know that.)
> 
> Anyway. Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are of course always appreciated, or you can find me on tumblr [here](https://renecdote.tumblr.com/).


End file.
